Historically, hydrogen has been indispensable for transforming petroleum into many of the synthetic materials used in industrial production, such as plastics, polymers, chemicals, and pharmaceutical raw materials. Hydrogen is also needed to make fertilizer for agricultural purposes and may other industrial applications. Currently, hydrogen is receiving a lot of press in the context of new applications involving renewable energy and clean technologies. In particular, R&D is underway to generate high rates of low-cost hydrogen gas via electrolysis (splitting water molecules with electrical energy to generate hydrogen) to fuel hybrid electric/hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles and reduce NOx emissions in standard combustion engines. Industry estimates that the total market for traditional uses of Hydrogen combined with these new applications will reach $15.6 billion by 2016.

Challenge
Hydrogen-powered transportation may reduce environmental emissions, but most hydrogen is currently generated from nonrenewable fossil fuels, such as natural gas. In fact, 85% of the world’s hydrogen is produced by steam reformation. In this process, natural gas is converted to hydrogen. Unfortunately, a significant amount of greenhouse gasses are also produced, most notably carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2); for every one pound of hydrogen produced by the steam reformation process, four pounds of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere --resulting in “dirty hydrogen.” This dirty gas is unacceptable for use in many industrial and renewable energy applications, such as fuel cells, without further purification.

Alternative hydrogen production methods are essential for eliminating production of these greenhouse gasses. Electrolysis can generate clean hydrogen without the use of fossil fuels and has the potential to meet both today’s hydrogen needs and those of the future. However, the technology has not achieved the efficiency and cost levels required because the precious metal catalyst materials used in the electrodes for electrolysis today are expensive and the reaction that produces the hydrogen is not efficient enough. Alternative low-cost catalyst materials must be found to increase efficiencies and gas output.

Solution
Two types of electrolysis have been considered for hydrogen generation, acidic and alkaline. Acidic electrolysis is ill suited to be the standard production method as it requires prohibitively expensive platinum as its catalyst material. Alkaline electrolysis is the more promising approach because it eliminates the need for expensive precious metals to serve as a catalyst, and with high surface area nano-scale particles, the catalytic reaction is more efficient. For alkaline electrolysis, nickel is ideal because it is far less costly than platinum and can easily be produced at the nano scale. Nano scale nickel also dramatically increases the surface area available for the catalytic reaction that generates the hydrogen, thus increasing efficiency and production rates.

To address the hydrogen generation conundrum, QuantumSphere has not only developed unique, low-cost, nanomaterials needed to increase catalytic surface area on the electrodes, but has also developed a novel method for directly producing hydrogen from water and electricity (using nano-enabled electrodes) resulting in higher efficiencies and greater gas output. This highly efficient system is delivered in a compact portable device designed for on-board /on-demand low-cost, high-rate hydrogen production. Even with the hydrogen transportation industry potentially years away, this new electrolysis method could make other processes that use hydrogen, such as fertilizer production, less dependent on fossil fuels.

QSI has demonstrated that by using a blend of its nickel and other nano catalysts materials it is possible to exceed the Department of Energy’s target with 85% efficiency while achieving a ten-fold increase in production over all published data seen to date, and without any CO2. This degree of efficiency now makes hydrogen generation through electrolysis more economical and commercially viable for replacing fossil fuel-based methods. Additionally, QSI’s proprietary and scalable manufacturing process can produce high surface area nano catalyst materials in the quantities required for large-scale commercial hydrogen generation via water electrolysis. QSI’s nano scale materials thus make it possible to meet all current and future hydrogen needs: for industrial production, as sole fuel for next generation plug-in hybrid electric/hydrogen and fuel cell powered vehicles, and for the hydrogen-enhanced standard combustion engine for emissions reduction purposes.

Hydrogen Generation by Water Electrolysis
During electrolysis, water molecules are broken into their constituent parts using QSI nanometal (such as Nano Ni) electrodes to produce oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2). The hydrogen can be used to power fuel cells (See How Hydrogen Creates Electric Power In A Fuel Cell); the oxygen can be stored or vented as desired. In this diagram, the electrolysis process is powered by solar panels made using Nano Ni, but conventional sources of electricity may also be used.

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